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Discovery is being made in the medical sector every year. The purpose of all these discoveries is to make people's lives easier. With the number of people depending on life-saving drugs increasing every day, bringing reform to the way oral medicine is administered has been given the utmost priority. Orally administered medicine is the cheapest, safest, and easiest mode of drug administration.
Though the mode of oral drug administration may seem perfect, improvements can always be made. Many people, especially geriatric and co-morbidity patients, have certain medical conditions that make them prone to choking after consuming oral tablets or capsules. Even in the case of infants or younger children, the oral mode of drug delivery is problematic due to choking hazards. Owing to this, a new kind of oral medication called oral disintegration strips has now been introduced into the market.
The patient places the strip on the surface of their tongue and waits for it to dissolve without swallowing or chewing it. Since the orally disintegrating strips dissolve in the mouth by mixing with the saliva, there is no need to drink water to swallow the medication. It can benefit those who have difficulty swallowing due to a medical condition or would prefer not to swallow a tablet or a capsule.
The tablet contains a lot of binding material, while the orally disintegrating strips contain very little filler and a higher drug concentration. ODS is rapidly becoming a preferred drug delivery method due to its ease of administration, non-invasiveness, adaptability, patient compliance and acceptability.
The drug contained in the oral disintegration strip is released into the mouth. Once mixed with the saliva, the strip rapidly disintegrates, eliminating the need to take it with water. The drug makes its way through the patient’s system in a faster, more efficient manner, and is eventually absorbed by the stomach lining.
When swallowed, any normal tablet or capsule stays in the digestive system for some time. It slowly disintegrates and releases its contents, which are absorbed by the lower end of the alimentary canal. This entire process takes time, which is why the time it takes for the active pharmaceutical ingredient to mix with the bloodstream and cause an effect is also longer. On the other hand, the orally disintegrating strips help the drug to be absorbed immediately, which helps in releasing the active ingredients into the bloodstream sooner than regular tablets. This is why ODS can have an immediate effect on the body.
Many medicines need to be released slowly into the bloodstream and not immediately. The oral dissolving strips cannot be regulated concerning the release rate of the active pharmaceutical ingredient. This makes it impossible to administer drugs that need to be released gradually in ODS form.
However, oral dissolving strips are a revolutionary development in oral medication. Not only does it make drug administration easier, but it also makes it faster and more efficient.
With developments like this, the more invasive modes of drug administration like injections, can slowly be reduced. Since the oral dissolving strips work at a competitively fast rate, there is research going on to figure out how else these orally disintegrating strips can help patients and make their lives easier.
ZIM Labs is an innovative drug delivery solution provider focusing on improving patient convenience and adherence to drug intake. We offer a range of technology-based drug delivery solutions and non-infringing proprietary manufacturing processes to produce and supply innovative and differentiated generic pharmaceutical products to our customers globally. At ZIM Labs, we provide our customers with a comprehensive range of solid value-added dosage differentiated generic products in semi-finished and finished categories/formulations. These include granules, pellets (sustained, modified, extended-release), taste-masked powders, suspensions, tablets, capsules, and recently developed Oral Thin Films (OTF).
